Final Score: Brazil 1-2 Canada Goalscorers: Debinha 33'; Zadorsky 22', Leon 29' International Friendly
Match Recap
The Canadian women's national team made it five wins in a row on Friday afternoon, defeating Brazil 2-1 at Estádio Urbano Caldeira. Ary Borges tested Canadian goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan a few minutes into the match, curling a shot from distance toward the bottom right corner of the net, but the 2022 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year dived to her left to catch and hold onto the ball, keeping the match scoreless early on. Canada opened the scoring in the 22nd minute on a header from centre-back Shelina Zadorsky. She rose above her defenders to redirect a fantastic cross from Ashley Lawrence past Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena, and the visitors were in front. Borges challenged Sheridan again from distance in the 28th minute, cleanly striking a ball on target. Sheridan jumped and got a fingertip to it, pushing it onto the crossbar and out of the play. The touch was so subtle that the referee didn't even catch it, and what looked to be a Brazilian corner was instead a goal kick. Moments later, Canada won a corner of their own at the other end of the pitch, and took full advantage to double their lead. After Christine Sinclair headed on the cross into the box, the ball fell to the feet of the red-hot Adriana Leon. The Manchester United forward struck the ball well with a left-footed volley back across the box and into the bottom right corner, making it 2-0. The home side pulled one back a few minutes after Leon's goal on a moment of magic from North Carolina Courage teammates Kerolin and Debinha. Running at the Canadian backline, Kerolin played an audacious chipped pass over Zadorsky and Kadeisha Buchanan that Debinha brought down with her shoulder. She then lunged forward to make she was first to the ball, poking it past Kailen Sheridan to cut the lead in half. That would be it for the scoring in the first half, but Brazil came out of the break firing on all cylinders. Debinha and Borges were among the players to fire shots on target in the first ten minutes or so, including another long-range effort from the latter to force another big stop from Sheridan. Borges, who made several similar attempts to catch Sheridan off guard, was visibly frustrated after Sheridan again pushed the ball over the crossbar, as the young Palmeiras midfielder's side was chasing an elusive second goal. That goal would never come, and Canada held on for a 2-1 victory. Beating another "tier one" opponent in Brazil, especially on their home soil, is a good result for Canada as they continue to build toward the World Cup next summer. Another positive for Canada was another senior national team debut, this time for 17-year-old Amanda Allen of Mississauga, Ontario. Allen is an attacker, and recently showed signs of promise at the U-17 Women's World Cup in India. She's one of three players from that team in this camp -- the others fullback Ella Ottey and forward Annabelle Chukwu -- and looked sharp in her 20 minutes in relief of Nichelle Prince. With the victory, Canada has now won five matches in a row, and nine of their last ten, the lone defeat coming in the final of the Concacaf W Championship. They will play Brazil again on Tuesday in Sao Paulo in the second and final match of this November international window.Three Observations
Shelina Zadorsky impresses on both sides of the ball as she picks up starting minutes
One of the players to watch in this camp, and all of the ones leading up to the World Cup, is centre-back Shelina Zadorsky. The Tottenham Hotspur captain's ticket to Australia and New Zealand for next summer's tournament is all but certainly booked, but Zadorsky's spot in the starting eleven isn't as secure. Zadorsky is absolutely good enough to be in Canada's starting eleven -- she's one of the better ball-playing centre-backs in the world, as well as defensively sound -- but the issue for her is who she's up against in the battle for minutes. Even though she's had a bit of a rough stretch for both Canada and Chelsea of late, maybe lacking a bit of confidence, Kadeisha Buchanan is always going to be one of the first names on the team sheet for Bev Priestman. One of the most commanding defenders in the world when she's at her usual best, Buchanan will almost certainly take one of the two centre-back spots in the lineup. That leaves Zadorsky and Vanessa Gilles as the two players likely to battle for the spot beside her. At the Olympics last summer Gilles won the spot, playing every minute of the knockout rounds as Canada picked up the gold medal. Gilles, however, has been dealing with an injury recently, allowing Zadorsky to play a lot of international minutes, and she's thrived. She made the most of her opportunity once again on Friday, playing between Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence on the left side of Canada's defence. She made the tackles she needed to make, and beat the rapid duo of Debinha and Kerolin to a few loose balls. Her aerial ability is also well-documented, and it played a key role in Friday's victory. It was Zadorsky's goal in the 22nd minute that will grab the headlines, as a towering header saw her beat the Brazilian goalkeeper to open the scoring. "I think Shelina's grown and grown with confidence," said Priestman after the match. "She's had a consistent run for us now in the last three windows, and I think she did brilliant. Not just defensively but also organising, she's very, very vocal. She obviously scored the set play goal, and that's one of her individual objectives. "Really pleased. I think you can see she's confident, she's playing a lot of minutes at Tottenham, and you can feel and see that on the pitch."Priestman beats threatening Brazil side for the first time, both sides look ahead to rematch
Friday's match in Santos was the fourth meeting between Canada and Brazil since Bev Priestman took over, but only the first time Canada has won the match in regular time. Always a difficult opponent to break down due to their attacking prowess and intense work rate, Brazil has historically played Canada very closely. Including Friday's match, Canada are 8-9-9 all-time against Brazil, and will have an opportunity to tie things up on Tuesday afternoon in the second of two friendlies between the sides. The first meeting was at the 2021 SheBelieves Cup in February of last year, a match won 2-0 by the Brazilians. They met again four months later in a pre-Olympics friendly, and drew that one 0-0. The biggest match between the two was in the quarterfinals at the Olympics in late July. Like the prior meeting, that one would end 0-0, and penalties were needed to decide who would be moving on to the semis. Canada would go on to win that shootout 4-3, before beating the United States and Sweden to pick up the Olympic gold, but Priestman had never actually gotten the better of Pia Sundhage's team in the 90 minutes. This match was also a challenging one -- any time you have to face the likes of Debinha and Kerolin you know your defenders are going to be tested early and often, and that's exactly what happened. From the first whistle those two were among the players causing problems for Priestman's backline, but the Canadians were able to turn everything away. After Zadorsky and Leon scored twice in seven minutes to give Canada an early 2-0 advantage, Brazil weren't fazed at all, and responded shortly after Leon's goal went in. A brilliant chip over the Canada backline from Kerolin was knocked down by the shoulder of Debinha, who used her second touch to flick the ball past Kailen Sheridan to cut their deficit in half in the 33rd minute. Despite a strong second half push, an equalizer wouldn't come for the home team, as Sheridan produced several big saves, including a couple of acrobatic ones to push shots from distance away from the danger area. "I thought it was an exciting game of football for anyone who was watching," said Priestman after the match. "It was very different from our encounter at the Olympics, there was chances and it was exciting. "It was a bit nervy at times for both teams, but it's what I expected. I think whenever we play Brazil it's that type of game where it's always going to be close because they've got that quality and are hard to break down, and vice-versa." Sundhage praised the Canadians after the match, and was quick to remind the media that although the result didn't necessarily reflect how well her team played, they could take pride in the fact that they went toe-to-toe with the Olympic champions, saying "remember, Canada is the gold medalist at the Olympics, and they're getting better and better." Priestman repeated several times after the match that Brazil were exactly the strong test they were expected to be, and that Canada went there looking for, and that the second match on Tuesday will also be an important occasion as they prepare for the World Cup. "Overall I'm pleased," Priestman said. "We started strong, and we maybe were the reason for our own mistakes. The reason we were going to lose the game was probably from our own errors, but that's something to learn from when you've not had much on the pitch together before the game. "That'll come, hopefully by game two."Confident Adriana Leon continues fantastic international form
Over the past six months or so, Adriana Leon has been one of Canada's best players. Including her strike on Friday, Leon has scored seven times since Tokyo 2020, including five since her goal in the Concacaf W Championship semifinal in mid-July. Canada have played five friendly matches since that tournament, and Leon has scored three times against Australia -- all three of their goals in their 1-0 and 2-1 victories Down Under -- as well as the winning goal in Santos on Friday. Leon, as Janine Beckie described on Twitter, has had a knack for scoring in big moments of late, and she isn't just scoring tap ins, she's firing world class shots past good goalkeepers. This time out it was a well-struck volley that went across goal into the bottom right corner, past a diving Lorena, and into the back of the net. At the time it doubled Canada's lead, but after Debinha's goal moments later, it would end up serving as the match-winner as well. She also continues to impress with her ability to both create chances and get on the end of them, as well as her willingness to get involved physically. It's that combination of grit and skill that will make her an integral part of Priestman's team going into the World Cup, and at the moment Leon looks undroppable from the starting lineup. The challenge now will be breaking into the starting lineup at Manchester United, where Leon has thus far been limited to four appearances off the bench in Women's Super League action, scoring one goal. She's playing well, but is competing for minutes with some other WSL superstars. "I think Dri only scores some unbelievable goals," said Priestman with a smile after the match. "She's got that, and that's why she's in the team and that's why she's scoring, because she has that technical ability under pressure to just pull the trigger and do it well. "That confidence is going to help us next year, when you have people consistently scoring it really adds to the confidence of the team. We know we create chances, which we have been more and more -- I know we didn't create this many chances in the last two encounters -- so that's really positive for us heading into 2023."CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Shelina Zadorsky, Canada The Canadian defender put in a strong defensive performance against world class attackers, and scored Canada's opening goal with an impressive header.What’s next?
Canada will face Brazil in a second friendly match on Tuesday, at Neo Química Arena in São Paulo. That match kicks off at 1:15 pm ET and can be watched live on OneSoccer.Continue reading...